


Augmented

by Hallie_Blue



Category: To The Edge of the Sky (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Gen, Multi, OT8, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, TTEOTS, more canon predictive than canon divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-03-21 03:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13732098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hallie_Blue/pseuds/Hallie_Blue
Summary: “Thank you, for falling into our trap...Olympia is now under KAIROS’ control.”Evren (Seven… she mentally corrects herself more sternly with each fleeting thought of her past self) feels sick to her stomach even now, hours later as the words repeat themselves over and over in her head while Phantom Alpha hide like frightened children in the tiny two bedroom safe house that Three had managed to procure them without alerting PHASe and, by extension, KAIROS.Her first official mission and KAIROS takes over Olympia.This is so much worse than tripping over some loose tiles.





	1. Prologue: The Lost Files_

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE (9/5/2018): All BTS references have been removed from my tagging of "Augmented" out of respect to ADS, the creators of TTEOTS in regards to BigHit's demands for the removal of BTS from the TTEOTS visual novel. While I am not affiliated with ADS, I feel that I would rather portray Phantom Alpha as they are portrayed in the game and not keep them as being portrayed as the BTS members simply because am ARMY. While I AM an ARMY and while love both BTS and TTEOTS, my love for TTEOTS goes beyond just the fact that it was originally a BTS Fan Game. I love the story and characters of TTEOTS honestly, I love the new character designs possibly more than I loved when they were BTS inspired. 
> 
> I understand if any ARMY who read this fic because it was a BTS fic/or a fic based on a BTS fan game want to leave now that it's solely a TTEOTS fic, but to those who came from TTEOTS, I hope you can also respect this choice I've made to remove the BTS ties to this fic in respect to the creators of the game we all deeply love being forced to do the same. 
> 
> With Love, 
> 
> Hallie_Blue <3

 

**_2077.03.21__ **

**_LOCATION: UNTRACKABLE_ **

 

<REQUESTING TRANSMISSION>

CODENAME> Seven_

CLEARANCE LEVEL> PHANTOM_

                               RANK>   ALPHA_

CLASSIFICATION>   PSION_ 

                              CLASS>   S_

REQUESTING> PERMISSIONS_

                              TYPE>   RELOCATION_

 

<REQUESTING RELOCATION>

                              TYPE> FILES_

FILES REQUESTED> PHANTOM ALPHA_

SPECIFICATIONS> SERVERS_

SERVERS REQUESTED>   ALL_

 

<REDIRECTING Phantom Alpha_ FILES FROM All_ SERVERS>

<SPECIFY RELOCATION POINT FOR Phantom Alpha_ FILES FROM All_ SERVERS>

SERVER NAME> ADRIFT_

REQUESTING> ENCRYPTION_

                                     ENCRYPTION TYPE> FILES_

                                     DECRYPTION METHOD> CODEWORD_

                                     SET CODEWORD> TO THE EDGE OF THE SKY_

RENAME FILES> The Lost Files_ 

ACCESS RELOCATED FILES> [YES] or NO

ACCESSING FILES> The Lost Files_ 

 

**_2077.02.02__ **

**_LOCATION: Klásma_ _District, Olympia__ **

 

“Thank you, for falling into our trap...Olympia is now under KAIROS’ control.” 

 

Evren ( _ Seven… _ she mentally corrects herself more sternly with each fleeting thought of her past self) feels sick to her stomach even now, hours later as the words repeat themselves over and over in her head while Phantom Alpha hide like frightened children in the tiny two bedroom safe house that Three had managed to procure them without alerting PHASe and, by extension, KAIROS. 

 

Her first official mission and KAIROS takes over Olympia.

 

_ This is so much worse than tripping over some loose tiles.  _

 

Suddenly, she finds her mind to wandering briefly to Four. Her dear teammate Four, the Wraith. Four the master assassin and, though he hides it behind a blunt and no nonsense persona, the most protective and one of the most caring. More than anything though, he's the one whom she’s failed to protect. Left behind on the mission, injured, in PHASe Headquarters. Separated from the rest of Phantom Alpha now. Surrounded, no doubt, by their now victorious enemy. KAIROS

 

Because being defeated isn’t shameful enough, KAIROS has allowed Phantom Alpha to leave the enemy base freely. Seven tries not to think of what that means. ( _ We aren’t enough of a threat to them. They have control know and believe we aren’t enough to worry about. Without PHASe backing us with funding and weapons.) _ Some traitorous part of her wonders if that true...another even more traitorous part wonders if it is a bad thing. 

 

**_2070.04.29__ **

**_Location: The Waste, Somewhere Remotely Near Olympia__ **

 

He’s kind to her. This new stranger. This new clan member. Handsome too. He isn’t perfect. Not her ideal man by any stretch. Evren may be a drifter but she’s allowed to be picky in who or if she chooses to love. Still, he comes off as  _ More _ .

 

Yet she’s not sure that’s what it is she feels for him...love...perhaps a better term would be fascination or respect.  They’re only nineteen and fairly stupid after all, and she watches on anxiously as he antagonizes city dwellers loitering just outside the walls most days as she cover’s the younger children in ragged blankets before going over to pull him away from unnecessary fights.

 

In quiet moments, where they make an effort to hide from the sun together in some small house long forgotten in some ghost town where they can pretend they are “Real Adults”, he calls her pretty or smart or lovely or brave and unlike the others before him who tried to do the same, she smiles, unsure if she should believe him, and allows it. 

  
  
  


**_2077.02.02__ **

**_LOCATION: Klásma_ _District, Olympia__ **

  
  


Seven feels eyes on her and she finds herself pulled out of her thoughts by a sudden sense of awareness that all the rest of Phantom Alpha are staring. At her. They’re staring at her. 

 

 Zero has, at some point, put his hand on her own in an effort to be reassuring. “Are you okay?” 

_ No. I’m not. Far from it.  _

 

“I’m fine.” 

 

“Right.” says Six, making a dismissive sound that’s part sarcastic amusement and part Are-you-fucking-kidding-me. “Because people who are fine totally dig their nails into their palms until they draw blood, like, all the time. Of course. I forgot that was the newest trend for the totally not traumatized.”

 

_ Traumatized? No. No, I’m not traumatized. I’m fucking sick to my stomach. This wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t here. I was right. I’m not good enough to be part of Phantom Alpha...I’m not even good enough to be part of PHASe at all. If I wasn’t here this wouldn’t have gone so wrong.  _

 

“What happened today isn’t your fault.” Six...can read minds. Fuck. She should’ve remembered but she’d been so lost in her self-blaming she’d forgotten.

 

“Is  _ that  _ what you’ve been thinking about?” Nine looks saddened and sickened by the thought. Three and Eight and Five all share a look, one she hasn’t learned how to interpret yet. She hopes she will. “It’s not you know. Six is right. We’d have had worse odds if you hadn’t been here.” 

 

Her thoughts drift to Four, trapped in HQ, injured in a place that’s over run by the enemy. Six looks at her dead in the eye, forcing her to look by by holding on to her shoulders. “You belong here, Seven. PHASe needs you. We need you. Even Four.”  

 

“Especially Four.” Nine adds, “We can’t retake HQ without him, and we can’t get him out alone.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) "Klásma" is the Greek word for Divided. Literally Phantom Alpha are hiding in the "Divided District". I chose this name for it because A: Olympia is divided between KAIROS and PHASe. B: Phantom Alpha are physically separated from one of their team mates and also C: the fact that Seven is struggling to separate herself as Seven the agent versus Evren the drifter. 
> 
> 2) The flashback in this chapter is the start on what will be my take on how Seven got her Augs and why she had them prior to becoming an agent which rarely/never happens.


	2. Chapter One: Inappropriate Affect

**_2077.02.02__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters, Medical Wing_ **

 

From his place in the medical wing, Four watches headquarters fall to the enemy.

 

_“Olympia has fallen.”_

 

It echoes in the halls long after the message stops and the fighting stops and everyone is standing around in total confusion and shock and hopelessness. He watches and his mouth trips over into a smile. He thinks of his friends, his team, who are safely out of harm’s way, no where near HQ, believing they’ve won if only for a moment, and wonders how likely the enemy would be to believe that the Great Operative Four has surrendered and allow him to join the others?

 

Unlikely, but he wonders anyway. Mostly because some terrifyingly large part of him truly wants to feel free again. Free. _Fuck._ did he even know what that means anymore?

 

The medic tending to Four’s wounds misinterprets his smile and begins to whisper to himself, “They’re going to save us. They’re on the outside they can save us.”

 

There is no need to ask who “ _They”_ are because “ _They”_ is Four’s team. His friends. _His family_ .  The only ones who _matter._  

 

Yes. They can save them all. In a perfect world. Maybe. One without variables, for instance. But this? This is not anywhere near a perfect world. Because in a perfect world they would not need saving in the first place.

 

Part of him really hopes they won’t even try. He would rather die than lose them to the enemy after all.

 

He ignores the way he can’t tell who he’s thinking of as the enemy now. Ignores the sigh of relief he had when the rebellion infiltrated Olympia because it meant there was nothing for his Team to come back to. That they could leave and never look back even if he died here they’d finally be free. Ignored the fact that no one should feel that way about the good guys.  

 

**_2069.12.02__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters, Training Center_ **

 

He’s seventeen, going on eighteen. Sometimes he finds it hard to remember that he’s still that young. Sometimes he wonders why it even matters. He’s working with Phantom Theta. They’re low level but they still do missions of decent importants. At least he’s subunit does. Mostly because Four is too skilled to be in such a low ranking team and even Dr. Kairia Park knows it, so Theta get missions above their usual pay-grade sometimes. Only, being above their pay grade means that only Four is usually skilled enough to be of any actual use. Meaning mostly, he goes alone, an army of voices talking into his coms to offer “Support” and sometimes he just wants to rip the damn thing out of his ear so he can focus.

 

Maybe he should have, because fuck KAIROS. Fuck the kid with the chocolate curls and sharp golden brown eyes and the red fox mask. She couldn’t be more than thirteen. A kid. Who the fuck sends out a kid? Who sends someone out to kill a kid, either.  He hadn’t been able to pull the trigger. Partly because he’s stressed as Hell and distracted by Theta, who won’t shut the fuck up in the coms (that’s the official version, when Dr. Park asks how the Magician got away) in part because he can’t kill a kid (this he keeps to himself, but part of him wonders if Dr Park knows it regardless).

 

“It gets easier the longer you’re at it.” One of the other Wraiths in the training center said as she helps him with his aim. She from Phantom Alpha, currently the best Wraith class PHASe has. Four admires her, mostly because the way she says it makes it clear they’re no longer talking about aiming. (There is nothing wrong with his aim, except the fact that PHASe is better off thinking there is than thinking he’s compromised).

 

 _It gets easier._ The words echo in his head. Reverberating around in his mind like a speaker with too much base. It may get easier, but that doesn’t mean it should.

 

When he’d let the Magician live, part of him hoped she’d be grateful. That, should they meet again in battle, she’d return the favor. (When they do met again, she is fifteen and he’s nineteen. She doesn’t even hesitate before she pulls the trigger, but somehow he survives. He has no proof but he’s convinced it was on purpose.)

 

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION:_ ** **_Máthisi_ ** **_Public Library,_ ** **_Máthisi District_ ** **_, Olympia_ **

 

<REQUESTING TRANSMISSION>

CODENAME> Zero_

CLEARANCE LEVEL> PHANTOM_

                               RANK>   ALPHA_

CLASSIFICATION>   INFINATE_

                              CLASS>   Exemplar_

REQUESTING> PERMISSIONS_

                              TYPE>   ACCESS_

  
<REQUESTING ACCESS>

                           

ACCESSING> System_

                            SYSTEM REQUESTED> Surveillance_

 

<ACCESSING SYSTEM Surveillance_ FROM UNAUTHORIZED SERVER>

                            REQUEST AUTHORIZATION> YES or [NO]

  
<COMMAND_PROTOCOL_MANUAL_SYSTEM_OVERRIDE>

<EMERGENCY LOCKOUT FIX> PHANTASM_FAILSAFE_

ACCESS_SURVEILLANCE_SYSTEM_ CODE=RED

 

<OVERRIDE GRANTED>

ACCESS_SERVEILLANCE_SYSTEM_> PERMISSIONS_

ACCESSING PERMISSIONS> SERVER ACCESS_

SERVER ACCESS> ALL_FOR_USERS_

 

USERS PERMITTED SPECIFIED BY> CODENAME

CODENAMES WITH PERMISSIONS> ZERO_

 

                                                     SEVEN_

                                                     FIVE_

                                                     NINE_

                                                     EIGHT_

                                                     FOUR_

                                                     SIX_

                                                     THREE_

 

<PERMISSIONS OVERRIDE FINALIZED>

ACCESSING SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM> PHASe HEADQUARTERS_

 

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters: Medical Wing_ **

 

Four has been in the medical wing for two days now, he’s growing restless. Part of him relieved they haven’t come to interrogate him yet. Part of him wants to start an uprising just for something to do other than staring at the ceiling of the Medical Wing.

 

“Package for Operative Four.” At this statement, Four’s eyes light up, and not in the way that mean his augs are activated, but rather with some sense of hope, followed almost immediately by an overwhelming sense of dread. It couldn’t be, but when he looks towards the person speaking it is exactly what he had been imagining over and over for the last two days torn between fearing it and rejoicing at the thought. Eyes way too bright for the situation at hand and a big boxy smile plastered on the face, just visible beneath the hat of his delivery boy uniform, is Five.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) The new district name I've used, "Máthisi" is the Greek word for "Learning" I chose it because, in my mind it's where Olympia University would be located. 
> 
> 2) I can't help but feel there was a Phantom Alpha team before the current Phantom Alpha in TTEOTS, so I decided to play around with that idea in this fic.


	3. Chapter Two: The Make and Break(out)

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters: Medical Wing_ **

 

It takes Four a moment to process.

 

Five is in headquarters. Barring Four having a complete psychotic break and Five being a figment of his imagination, then the rest of Phantom Alpha must not be too far behind. He almost wonders why they hadn’t read him in on the plans for their attack, but he knows better. Olympia is at the hands of KAIROS and Four was lucky he wasn’t enterogated just yet, not to mention there is no way of knowing who’s listening to transmissions.

 

Still, It’s _Five_ and he’s _smiling_. At Four of all people. There are days when Five can’t look him in the eyes. Four hates those days, if only because he knows why they happen. Somedays, Four wonders if it would’ve been more merciful to have let Five die all those years ago. Just because the kid had been a damn good grifter, and became a perfect Shifter, doesn’t make recruiting him the right choice. (Just because Four is good at killing doesn’t mean he likes it.)

 

There’s a part of Four that wants to protect Five, but protecting isn’t in Four’s job description. Not the kind of protecting Five needs, at least. Not the kind of protecting that actually does any good to his team. The best he can do is keep them alive at this point. There is no protecting an PHASe Operative from their damn jobs, no matter how much Four wishes there was.

 

**_2070.10.19__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters: The Garden_ **

  
“It’s so fucked up.” Four is seventeen and drunk off his ass under the soft light of the full moon. Nine hums, as if to say ‘I’m listening’ but doesn’t do anything to show if he agrees or not. Nine is still training, unlike Four whose currently Phantom Theta’s best Operative, but he’s already much better at being an Architect than Four is at being a Wraith. Though that says more about Nine than it does about Four, since Four is a damn good Wraith, when he needs to be.

 

“So, so, so fucked up...you know that right?” Four mutters lazily, slurring his words partly due to the alcohol, partly because he doesn’t give a shit, “I just killed someone in front of a kid. He’s only _Fifteen._ This is bullshit. He’s an actual baby, He shouldn’t have to see shit like that.”

 

“I’m sixteen.” Nine says. It’s blunt, the way he says it. Unbecoming of someone of the Architect class, but it’s just Nine and Four in the gardens, so being anything other than honest doesn’t really matter, “he’s not that young.”

 

“You forget, I think, that Five’s not like you and me. He wasn’t born for this life, he isn’t made to live like this.”  

 

“He’s good at it though.” It’s not a big deal. Not to Nine at least. To Four, however? To Four it is. To Four he’s facing down a thirteen year old in a shootout all over again. Hands shaking, questioning _why._ Why must his rival be a thirteen year old girl? Why must Five watch him kill people?

 

_Why?_

 

_Why?_

 

_Why?_

 

_Why?_

 

_Why is this his life?_

 

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_Location: PHASe Headquarters, Medical Wing_ **

 

Five wraps his arms around Four in a quick hug. He didn’t always like the things Four did, but he liked Four himself. Four was honest after all, and if he didn’t want to tell you something you didn’t want to hear he didn’t open his mouth in the first place. Knowing Four was safe, less stoic than normal thanks to the low dosage of pain meds he was on, but safe in the he’s-less-injured-than-we’d-last-seen-him sense has brought the Shifter a surprising sense of calm. To say Five is relieved is an understatement. He can’t wait to see the looks on Zero and Seven’s faces when they see Four up close and personal again. (He tries to block out the thoughts of Seven’s complete breakdown the other day and the way she blamed herself for the team’s failure to recognize that they had walked into a trap).

 

As he offers the other delivery-boy uniform he’d hid inside the box to the famed Assassin, he briefly contemplates who is more likely to cry when they first see Four again, Zero or Seven...or Six. (When it comes to Four, Six is always a bit of a wildcard). He already knows that Eight is going to cry, so adding him to the running is absolutely boring. Eight cries at the Lion King still, and that movies been around longer than most of the people on Earth have been alive not to mention Eight’s watched it about six million times.

 

“How are we…” Five shushes Four by pressing his index finger to the Wraith’s lips before helping him tuck his hair out of sight as he tugs the delivery boy cap over his eyes. He’s got no time for being polite at the moment. Seven is waiting for them in D-Wing and they need to join her there before they accidentally get spotted and put Six or Zero in a compromising position.

 

“Sevvie is waiting for us to meet her after we finish up here, SiSi and ‘Ro are doing … other stuff, so they’ll be running a bit behind today.”  

 

 _Other stuff._ Not descriptive but the best that he can offer now, all things considered. He also is fighting down a cringe at the half-assed cover names he came up with on the fly.

 

Four nods. He’s usually the quiet one, so Five isn’t expecting much conversation. Five just hopes he’s explained it casually enough to sound like two co-workers making plans for after their work day ends.

 

**_2065.01.12__ **

**_Location: PHASe Headquarters, Medical Wing_ **

 

The last thing he remembers before blacking out is that it was dark and cold in his alleyway of the Klásma District, the one between 3rd Avenue and Willow Street. So cold, in fact, he hadn’t been able to feel his limbs. He wonders if that had been a bad thing, but he remembers the beating he’d taken before that point and realizes that it was probably better to be dangerously cold than in severe pain.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” The guy asks. He doesn’t get a response however, because the younger passes out relatively quick.

 

“Who are you?” He asks when he wakes up in an unfamiliar white room. He can’t tell if he’s in a hospital or somewhere even more sinister like a psych ward or science facility.

 

“I’m N-Nine. I’m Nine.” the kid couldn’t be more than a year older than him and the way he talks makes it sound like being called Nine is still something new to him. Though calling Nine a kid at all feels wrong, it’s like a much older and more sophisticated soul is trapped in a boy’s body.

 

“I’m Da-” he’s interrupted by Nine.

 

“You’re V the notorious grifter, thief, and manipulator who’s basically made the Klásma District his playground,” Nine says, “But from now onward you’ll be Five, a trainee and future Operative of PHASe.”

 

The newly renamed Five hadn’t realized he was notorious or a grifter...whatever those words meant. He had always assumed this thing he could do was just...you know, survival. Klásma District was a mess, even he could see that and he was _ten_ , surviving in it meant breaking a few laws sometimes, especially when you’re ten years old, orphaned and homeless. “And if I say ‘Fuck no’?”

 

“Then I’ll kill you,” He hadn’t seen that there was another person in the room, so it makes sense that he’s startled by the way the other boy speaks up. Stepping out of his hiding place just out of sight for the first time since Five had regained consciousness, ”and the Panacea will bitch about wasting supplies and augs on a corpse that they’ll just end up having to dispose of.”

 

“Augs?” Five had always wanted augs. Well not exactly, but he had found the concept of them really amazing. Plus augs were much easier to focus on than the idea that a kid only a year or two older than him would kill him if he didn’t join PHASe.

 

Nine and the other guy exchange a glance that must mean something, based on the way they both were acting, but whatever it was, Five hadn’t quite figured out how to interpret it.

 

Nine hums as he turns his attention back to the younger boy, almost like he’s confirming that Five had heard him correctly without actually saying it. Plausible deniability, maybe? Though what Nine wanted to deny he didn’t know. Maybe he wasn’t meant to find out about the augs yet.  

 

“Would he really kill me if I said no?” Nine glances over his shoulder. It’s a legitimate question, considering it’s Five whose life was being threatened.

 

“Even if I didn’t you wouldn’t exactly just get to go back to your old life.” Four says, “Killing you would be more merciful than a life in prison.” The boy called Four is hard to read, even at twelve, but something in his unwillingness to look Five in the eyes speaks volumes. He doesn’t know. Doesn’t know if he could actually bring himself to kill Five or not.

  
When Five became a trainee at PHASe...albeit reluctantly and almost entirely unwillingly. Four had promised being a trainee was better than life in prison. Four was wrong in that instance…

  
To Five, at least, PHASe _was_ a prison.


	4. Chapter Three: Concerns -pt. 1

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters: Server Room_ **

 

Zero has been ignoring the itch on his nose for the last half an hour, but the question of when the last time someone cleaned the server rooms at PHASe drifts in and out of his thoughts. He makes a note to ask Dr. Park if she could send someone from the cleaning crew down here at some point...when they’ve finally got their Blue Wings infestation under control that is.

  
When not if, because even the tiniest bit of doubt in his team is an invitation for them to blow their mission massively, so he has complete faith in them even Seven...especially Seven. (He’s convinced that having extra faith in Seven will counterbalance her own self-doubt.)

 

He’s timing himself, like always, in part because he’s that much of a perfectionist but also because he’s tired as Hell. He had lost a good deal of sleep last night, since he’d had to shut down their comms two days ago in order to avoid being monitored by KAIROS. It was on Nine’s orders but the complete cut off from Four has them all on edge. Seven had silently cried herself to sleep but Zero had noticed due to his own inability to relax.

 

In truth the two days between the fall of PHASe and now has had them all on edge, even Nine (though he and Three are the best at hiding it by far). Three and Six, it seemed, had kept taking turns sharing worried looks with Nine when they thought the others weren’t watching (the only reason he even knows this is because Zero is almost always watching his teammates, in part because he wants to learn to be a better operative by studying their behavior, but mostly because he wants to know them as well as they know one another, and thinks he can compensate for having less time with them by being twice as observant).  Eight on the other hand, was glued to Five’s side like his own personal teddy-bear/human-shield hybrid as Five studied Seven, watching her. Studying everything from the way she tugged her indigo hair up into a ponytail, only to let it fall immediately back where it started when she was nervous, to the way she would chew on her lip until she’d nearly broke the skin, only stopping short because Three had asked her to look at something, less out of need for her help and more out of desire to distract their newest team-member from a second emotional breakdown.

 

Zero shakes the memories of the last few days away. He needs to focus. The servers Three needs access to aren’t going to hack themselves.

 

* * *

 

 

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION: Klasma District, Untrackable_ **

 

Tap.

Tap.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap.

 

 _‘Oh.’_ Three thinks, his mind being pulled out of his analysis of the data Zero was continuously sending through by a gentle but firm pressure on his thigh. He looks down and sees the pressure is Nine’s hand. _‘Oh...that annoying tapping sound was my_ foot. _.’_

 

“Want to talk about it?”

 

“Do _you?”_

 

It was always like this with them. ‘ _What you feel=What I feel’_ has become such a common sentiment between himself and Nine. He was honestly surprised that Nine had even asked any more. Not that he minded, exactly, surprising and welcome weren’t always opposites. In fact, the idea of Nine taking the time to ask a question he already knew that answer to was very comforting for Three. Most people just ignore Three all together. ~~No one really wants to talk with the Spook who rarely left the relative safety of his lab.~~ Very few people took the time to consider that being an Oracle, and therefore rarely in the field, didn’t equate with him wanting to be alone one-hundred percent of the time.

 

Nine shakes his head, but starts talking anyway, “I saw what you did for Seven these last couple of days. Is that what’s got you on edge?”

 

Three tries to think about the data only. It’s easier than thinking about the team right now. “In a way...but not really.” _I know she can do it._ He doesn’t say. _I know they all can. I just worry when I can’t hear confirmation of what I know._

 

“The comms.” Nine says decisively, in the reflection of his face on Three’s tablet shows that the leader’s eyes widen immediately _after_ he says it. As if he had startled himself by speaking out loud.

 

Three nods in response, even though he knows it wasn’t a question. Even though he knows Nine hadn’t meant to speak at all. He turns his attention back to the data that Zero was sending through from Headquarters. So long as the data is coming through. He has proof of life,  ~~even if it is only for one of the six people he’s trying not to be worried about.~~

* * *

 

**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters: Server Room_ **

 

<REQUESTING TRANSMISSION>

                  CODENAME> Zero_

CLEARANCE LEVEL> PHANTOM_

                      RANK>   ALPHA_

CLASSIFICATION>   INFINATE_

                      CLASS>   Exemplar_

REQUESTING> PERMISSIONS_

                       TYPE>   ACCESS_

  
<REQUESTING ACCESS>

                     ACCESSING> System_

SYSTEM REQUESTED> Surveillance_

  
<ACCESSING SYSTEM Surveillance_ FROM Project_Zero_Prototype-A_>

                      REQUEST AUTHORIZATION> YES or [NO]

  
<COMMAND_PROTOCOL_MANUAL_SYSTEM_OVERRIDE>

<EMERGENCY LOCKOUT FIX> PHANTASM_FAILSAFE_

ACCESS_SURVEILLANCE_SYSTEM_ CODE=RED

 

<OVERRIDE GRANTED>

                         ACCESS_SERVEILLANCE_SYSTEM_> PERMISSIONS_

                         ACCESSING PERMISSIONS> MASK_PERSONNEL_

                         MASKING_PERSONNEL_> OPERATIVE_CODENAME_  
                                                                CODENAME(S)> Six_

                                                                                         Four_

                                                                                         Five_

                                                                                         Zero_  
                                                                                         Seven_

 

<MASKING_PERSONNAL_ PROCESSING>

                                       CODENAME=FALSE

                                        ALIAS=TRUE

 

<SELECTING ALIAS TYPE>

                                       CIVILIAN=True

 

SPECIFICATIONS> SupplyDeliveryTeam_

PHASe AUTHORIZATION> [TRUE] or FALSE

 

<PERMISSIONS>

                                   OVERRIDE> FINALIZED_

  
<OPERATIVES Six_ Four_ Five_ Zero_ Seven_ NOW READ AS <Authorized> SupplyDeliveryTeam_civillian BY PHASe HEADQUARTERS SECURITY SYSTEM>  

 

ACCESSING SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM> PHASe HEADQUARTERS_armory

 

<ACCESS GRANTED>

  


* * *

  


**_2077.02.04__ **

**_LOCATION: PHASe Headquarters: Armory_ **

 

Six would probably be more concerned about the fact that he was about to steal from his own workplace if he didn’t need to do so to eliminate a threat to said workplace. Six wants to laugh at how completely convoluted his situation is, but fights the urge down, he can be stealthy when he needs to be and if there was ever a time he needed to be, it was now.

 

Still, he _wants_ to laugh...or cry. He’s not even sure which, in all actuality. There’s no comms. No way to ask Zero if he’s hacked the cameras yet or not...and no way for Zero to tell him either, so he has to assume the Infinite had succeeded in his part of the mission as he walks boldly into the room he’s about to clear out. (Clear out is an exaggeration. He’s just taking enough to give them a fighting chance. About a dozen weapons of various types most of which will go to Four if Five is successful, which, in all actuality is a big-ass ‘ _if’_ to bank their whole plan on.)

 

Six is tired. Emotionally. Physically. Mentally. He just really wants to call it a day, but he knows better than to focus on that. Being tired isn’t useful. So he makes himself focus on what is. Robbing his workplace blind. (It’s funny, to him, that the thing he has to do now in order to keep his job is the exact same crime that forced him into this career path to begin with.)


End file.
